Klarinet Archive - Posting 000096.txt from 2008/01

From: Jonathan Cohler <cohler@-----.org>
Subj: [kl] Re: legato, myths, creeds
Date: Mon, 07 Jan 2008 11:03:46 -0500

In response to Margaret...

It is certainly true that most beginners and non-advanced players
have trouble simply blowing enough air all the time, and in that
context, it is definitely useful to just tell them to keep constant
pressure (support) all the time.

Furthermore, when playing adjacent notes, as in scales within a given
register, the impedance of the instrument changes so gradually that
we don't need to think about note-to-note changes but rather a smooth
change in air pressure through the scale.

In teaching less advanced players, it is often, if not always, the
case that you have to give them things "one step at a time", and
therefore when you teach a beginner "constant support" you are giving
them the first step in a long learning process. So many inexperience
players drop their airstream when they have to concentrate on some
difficult finger work, that it is useful to tell them "constant
support".

But if we restrict our discussion to advanced players with solid
embouchures and basically good air and fingers, and to the case of
playing large skips or register breaks (change of harmonic), then
there is absolutely no question that one MUST change the air pressure
(support), the voicing and the embouchure position at the moment of
the change if one wants to obtain an optimtal legato (defined as two
notes of the same loudness and same tonal color--i.e. harmonic
envelope).

This is not an opinion, but rather a fact of physics, acoustics and
how the clarinet works supported by reams of experiments,
dissertations and books by experts in the field.

--Jonathan

>>Why most people fail to have an effective legato is that they change
> >the airstream between one note and another, thinking that they have to
> >*create* a legato.
>
>Yes. This is my problem with Jonathan's original post. Most of the
>players I work with desperately need more consistency in their tonal
>controls. So what helps them as an icon of consciousness while
>playing? Surely not envisioning playing as a series of tiny
>adjustments such we sometimes make for slurring large intervals, or
>fixing pitch, or balancing tone in the throat notes. These mostly
>unconscious or automatic (sound-led) adaptations might be even less
>than 1 percent of what we do or think about while playing.
>I also don't believe that continual support *is* a myth. It's
>absolutely the way I play and teach--beyond metaphor.
>
>Margaret
>Margaret Thornhill
>http://www.margaretthornhill.com

--
Jonathan Cohler
Artistic & General Director
International Woodwind Festival
http://iwwf.org/
cohler@-----.org

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